


Witness

by ihaveacleverfandomurl



Series: Twinyards Appreciation Week 2019 [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Angst, Gen, POV Andrew Minyard, Past Abuse, Trauma, this one is rough boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-23 04:01:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21313849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihaveacleverfandomurl/pseuds/ihaveacleverfandomurl
Summary: It is their birthday, at 2:37 AM, and Aaron is crying.(November 4 - Andrew and Aaron)
Relationships: Aaron Minyard & Andrew Minyard
Series: Twinyards Appreciation Week 2019 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534991
Comments: 12
Kudos: 164
Collections: Twinyards Appreciation Week 2019





	Witness

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Discussions of Aaron & Andrew’s past abuse, self-victim-blaming.  
Written for [Twinyards Appreciation Week](https://twinyardsappreciationweek.tumblr.com/)!  
(This is in some weird in between timeline where Neil and Aaron haven’t switched rooms yet but Aaron and Andrew are on the path to healing,, AHHH idk either lol)  
I don’t even recall if Andrew and Aaron were in the same dorm room?? Like were all four of the OG Monsters sharing one room? or two and two? don’t tell me if I’m wrong I had no time to check and I wanted this twin time  
happy birthday, my boys, i'm sorry i made it so hard on you with this one ;_;

It is their birthday, and Aaron is crying.

Andrew is lying on his back, the clock reads 2:37 AM, and Aaron is across the room in his bunk, sniffling wetly into his pillow. Andrew stares at the shadowed, speckled texture of the outdated and ever-so-slightly-yellowed dorm ceiling. Nicky and Kevin are sleeping soundly — their cousin snoring happily, Kevin’s breaths soft and even.

Still, Aaron shudders another quiet sob with the fabric muffling his tears. Andrew knows why. He doesn’t cry, nowadays. But he did.

There is something about having a witness to tears — something about baring his soul so deeply. He could never, in front of others. They would become angry, or simper. Some of them would laugh. Hurt him more. And they would ask, question after question: _why, why, why? What is wrong with you? What is this for?_

_Why are you like this?_

Aaron does not want a witness. But he has one.

And Andrew does not want to perform self-centered false sympathy, or determination to fix an unfixable creature not asking to be fixed at all. But he does not have to be those people, either.

He sits up, lets his feet drop to the ladder of his and Kevin’s bunk. Abruptly, the noises cut off — Aaron holding his breath.

Andrew clambers to the floor, reaches for a jacket hanging next to the bed to tug it on, and heads to open the door of their suite.

A single, quiet sniff, like his twin thinks he has gone undetected.

“Come,” Andrew says, and lets the door close behind him. He’ll kill as much time as he needs to rummaging through the fridge — it’s his birthday, he can eat what he likes, and it’s Aaron’s birthday, he can get an extra minute to collect himself.

Aaron takes a long time. The oven tells Andrew it’s past three and the sadly freezer burned strawberry ice cream he dug out from behind frozen peas is almost gone when the bedroom door clicks again, revealing a tearstained but unrepentant Aaron, in a threadbare hoodie and his too-long Palmetto fox print pajama pants. Andrew is pretty sure they were a gift from the cheerleader — she’s got enough school spirit for the whole Exy team combined.

He doesn’t say anything, just opens the front door to lead Aaron up the dorm stairs, and up. Doesn’t look to see if he is followed, but listens to the quiet echo of Aaron’s feet in the empty stairwell.

It is cold on the roof, and the lights of the campus below are too bright for the hour, but Andrew follows the pull in his gut to the edge. Bare toes on the ledge to look down, a customary swoop in his stomach, and he is centered in his thrum of adrenaline, of death staring him in the face.

Aaron has lingered by the door to the roof — maybe surprised, maybe nervous, maybe scared, scared, scared that Andrew will fulfill that social role of asking _why_. But he drifts to Andrew’s side now, to peer warily down to the ground, giving the drop a much wider berth.

Andrew feels for the cigarette pack in his jacket, flicks a lighter open, and pulls a stick to life between his teeth. He can feel his twin’s eyes on the red flare of the cherry, and blows smoke, uncaring if this is judgement in the gaze that’s resting heavy on him.

“Why are you so _destructive_,” Aaron finally bursts out, but it sounds sadly, bitterly frustrated — more an unanswerable question for the unfixable man, rather than the flat out accusation both of them expected.

“It is the card that the world handed me.”

Aaron folds his arms, clenches his jaw, stares out over the campus. “She gave me presents, you know. She tried to remember every year, what day my birthday was, and what I liked.”

They stand in silence because _tried_ slipped in so very loudly.

“She was a…she was a good mom!”

“No,” Andrew says.

“She didn’t _mean_ to, Andrew, I was just difficult, I should have —”

Andrew grabs the front of Aaron’s hoodie, two fistfuls of fabric, to tug him in, and Aaron’s knitted eyebrows climb high on his forehead, eyes wide.

“Will you blame yourself if I toss you off this roof, too?”

“I — I don’t —”

“I thought I could make one of them love me. If I tried hard enough, if I did just as I was told, maybe they’d change their minds.” He shoves Aaron back from the edge. Takes the cigarette from between his lips and contemplates the burning end. Drops and snuffs it.

“It does not get through to an abuser. If they do not soften at first tears, do you think they will do it the fifth time you cry? Do you think they will listen, magically understand, become the person you wanted to love beneath it all, when you extend that twentieth olive branch, Aaron?”

“Andrew —”

“Did she get your presents on time? Or was it within the week? Did she get you nice things worth too much that you didn’t really want at all? Especially when they were late. Guilty gifts, weren’t they? Make-up gifts because she hit you so hard last week you’re still bruised, and she forgot til now, but she promises, she loves you, promise, Aaron —”

“_Shut up!_” Aaron grabs him, this time, and Andrew’s answering grip on his wrists is harsh enough to creak bone. They are swaying, on the edge of the roof, as Aaron shakes him, eyes red and wet. “Shut up, Andrew.”

Andrew lets them hang in the balance of roof and edge and watches another tear track its way down his twin’s face, and another.

Aaron pitches forward a little, in a sob, and Andrew cannot stop his own sharp inhale as he wobbles back. Aaron’s head snaps up at the shift in weight, at Andrew’s fingernails digging in, at the beginning of a fall backward. The yank back onto solid ground has them both staring at each other, still locked together, but Aaron is not furious anymore, no, just looks like the drawn, terrified boy that Andrew was — he swallows and presses his forehead to Andrew’s chest and exhales and laughs a sad, scared laugh. It is an approximation of an apology from him.

Andrew is not sorry, not for fulfilling any of his promises. Aaron may not ever fully forgive him for that. But even so, Andrew will not leave his twin to turn on himself alone on the roof.

It is their birthday, at 3:42 AM, and Andrew looks up at the stars and lets Aaron cry silently into his jacket.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: let me know which of the Twinyard Week fics you'd like to see added to/rewritten & expanded first [in this poll](https://www.quiz-maker.com/poll2600440x78d64920-74)!  
i promise i'll bring y'all some good fluff soon this isn't an all-pain-train 😢  
-  
feel free to chat to me about aftg on tumblr @ [foxy-exy](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/)! [Here's my rebloggable fic post](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/post/188818556088/witness)! & here's [my cosplay instagram](https://www.instagram.com/kayizcray/) with some aftg cosplay on it!  
-  
comments are my lifeblood ( ˘ ³˘)♥  



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